Everything Else

For all you UK based nekochanners.....

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/calenda ... cID=594620

I'm considering a season ticket. Only £8.50.


!m!

Quick report on the VCF.

I went on the Saturday and saw all sorts of incredible old systems. The computer museum is a superb collection, but not an SGI in sight. Apparently they have a load in storage, but are in the process of a rearrange so they are not on display as of yet.

I also bumped into Chris Searle in a museum corridor (UK residents may remember him from a TV show called "The Computer Program" and "Micro Live") along with some other guys and we chatted for a while. A really nice guy and really interesting to talk to.

Weirdest thing of the day had to be seeing a bunch of networked ZX Spectrums with a twitter update program running and followed by BBC Micro's with USB ports on the side.

The lakeside tent was full of Amiga's and Amiga fans. The AROS project seems really interesting.

Also met one guy with an SGI t-shirt on, didn't actually catch your name. Nice to see another channer at the show.

I meet a member of the young volunteer program there who was all enthusiastic about the Cray that he was restoring. Couple that with seeing a PDP-11, Elliot 803 & 905 (my mum used to program them back in the 60's), the WITCH computer and of course Colossus.

Luking around in the pics, a SUN system, a bunch of HP's, ICL's and a Prime.

The CRAY (I counted 9 fans each side at the top and there is the same at the bottom. 36 10cm fans in total)


The Elliot 905


A few racks including a SUN on the back left, some ICL machines in the middle and a PRIME on the back right.


The PDP-11


The Elliot 803, plus keepers




And last, but most certainly not least Collossus




I stronglly recomend anyone to visit the museum if they get the chance and get to the VCF next year.

!m!

How cool is that?
Where is that musem? Just in case I get to go to the UK sometime...

I remember that place. Bruce Damer was there last year.

I love that place! they have lots of _running_ hardware, such as the PDP-8:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPioENtAHuY

It is in bletchley park, where Alan Turing made his fame! And if you don't know who Alan Turing is you better go read up or turn in your geek card!

Anyway, here is their homepage unless it has been mentioned in the thread.
http://www.tnmoc.org/

And if you want to see a Cray just like the one above, you are welcome to visit the Update computer club in Uppsala.

I've been lead to believe that the only places in Sweden worth seeing are those where you are invited to have tea while seated on a Cray ...

They are after one of those Cray's at the computer museum.

Apparantly they only have the shell of one at the moment.

One of the other things they really want to get hold of is the software for a Prime. According to one of the guys there, Prime software is pretty much imposible to get hold of as Prime only leased the software to companies.

!m!

lol, is that an e-stop on top of the cray or just a hood ornament?

Also, do I see dials (of "dials and buttons" fame) in the picture with the ICL machines?

That's definitely a set of dials next to the monitor... but where are the buttons and what are they attached to?

It's an emergency stop button, _real_ computers need them

Indeed it is. I saw the power symbol next to it. Whatever happened to having large red power buttons on computers. Like my old 286 with the big red flip switch on the side. At least you knew you were turning some power off.

The guy who is restoring the Cray told me that the machine has a bunch of capacitors in the bottom that are so big, it can power the machine for an extra 10 seconds after a power loss so the CPU can power down properly.

!m!

Hi,



10 seconds should be enough to bring the system down. It's a well known fact that the Cray machines are so fast that they require 2 HALT instructions to stop them.